does windows "remember" device assignments and is it possible that if i
reinsert a like drive in the place of the damaged number 3 that the dynamic
drives will be "found" by windows 2003 server?

any help is appreciated!

Re: cannot access spanned dynamic volume help!

Windows recognizes drives from the disk signature, stored in the first
sector of the disk, and referenced in the HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices part
of the registry.

Renumbering the drives should therefore not break the volume. My assumption
would be that you have lost disk 5 as well. A defect power cable could be
the reason (this has happened to me, once).

If the volume on disk 4 and 5 was a mirrored volume, it should still be
accessible, while, if it was a an extended volume or a striped volume, you
would need to delete the volume, create a new and restore from backup.